Jon Stewart, Bill O’Reilly Set to Face Off Over Common – But Who is Common, Exactly? (MINI-VIDEOS)

Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart will be appearing on Bill O’Reilly’s The O’Reilly Factor to defend of his statements that criticized Fox News‘ coverage of rapper Common’s invitation to the White House this week. So we thought we would help out J-Stew by compiling a brief of exactly who Common is while also answering the looming critique O’Reilly poses about Common alleged support of two cop killers.

So who is Common aside from being a two-time Grammy-award-winning hip hop artist and actor?

This is the guy that Fox News does not want in the White House and who Karl Rove called a thug:

He started a foundation called The Common Ground Foundation that provides life, career and educational mentoring for urban youth and he writes children’s books in his spare time.

He’s a big reader of the Bible and the Koran, especially the Bible, Fox!

Okay now for the claims by Bill O’Reilly that he supports two cop killers. The two supposed cop killers that Common supports are Mumia Abu-Jamal, and Assata Shakur.

Mumia was found guilty of and sentenced to death for the December 9, 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. Mumia was a member of the Black Panther Party and a well known radio personality in his community in Philadelphia. His case has become highly controversial over three issues: the death penalty, Mumia’s guilt, and the fairness of the trial.

Common apparently believes this man did not receive justice and therefore neither did officer Faulkner who was murder that day. Whether Mumia did do it or not is not the point. Common doesn’t believe justice has been served and so he is doing what he believes is the right thing.

The same goes for the case of Assata Shakur who was an activist and escaped convict who was a member of the Black Panther Party (BPP) and Black Liberation Army (BLA). From 1971-1973, Shakur was the subject of a multi-state manhunt for what appear to be crimes that she did not commit because when she was caught she was never charged with any of the crimes for which she was being pursued.

Nevertheless, during the manhunt in May 1973 she was involved in a shootout on the New Jersey turnpike in which New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster was killed. Supporters of Assata know that she was present at the shootout when Trooper Foerster was killed but they believe she did not shoot him nor did she intend to harm him nor is she the murdering type. In Common’s A Song For Assata he raps:

Shot twice wit her hands up …

Assata had been convicted of a murder she couldna done
Medical evidence shown she couldna shot the gun …

I’m thinkin’ of assata, yeah.
Listen to my love, assata, yeah.
We’re molded from the same mud, assata.
We share the same blood, assata, yeah.
Your power and pride, so beautiful…
May God bless your soul.

So again, this does not have to do with whether or not Assata is innocent or guilty, it has to do with whether Common BELIEVES she is innocent or guilty and clearly he believes she is innocent.

So does Common support two cop killers? NO! He supports two people he believes were wrongfully convicted of killing law enforcement officers.